Saturday, February 2, 2008

Student Activism and Laptops

One of the greatest UP traditions is student activism. Instead of studying, some UP students choose to champion the cause of the poor and oppressed from the provinces and fight against capitalism by protesting against tuition fee increases and staging noisy rallies. But although they hate capitalism, these revolutionaries all possess cellphones and even have access to laptops.

Passing by Vinzon's Hall one day, I saw several of these activists using a brand new laptop to recruit new sympathizers via a powerpoint presentation. Oh well, guerrilla tactics I guess; use the tools of your enemy against them and all that jazz. But it is all just a question of adaptation. The message remains the same but the medium changes. The current trend of the world seems to be connectivity and everyone seems to be in to that no matter how much they hate infrastructure, the stock market, bathing, America and capitalism.

Even Osama Bin Laden and his crew use the Internet to reach a wider audience so the fact that UP activists use laptops should not be a surprise. But if they have access to brand new laptops then they can certainly afford a tuition fee increase.

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